Are they alternative? Progressive? Avant-garde? Metal? Or maybe rock? They are probably all of the above, but who cares! All that matters is that these guys have produced some of the most exhilarating, interesting, genre and mind bending rock/metal music ever! They have only 4 full albums under their belt to date although they are more than 15 years into their journey with the Tool spaceship. Aenima is the second in this series of absolutely excellent albums and along with Lateralus they are almost perfect!

Excellent album. Any of tool's works are different from one another in some respect, lyrically or musically, but this one just amazes you from start to finish. Even the little interludes keep you occupied with the peculiar sounds.

Some of the interlude tracks are annoying, i can agree with that, but who can deny that Intermission is fucking awesome? Same with Die Eier Von Satan imo. And every song on this album is awesome, and the length of the songs is almost unnoticable to me. which i'm pretty sure means i really like it!

megadeath13 - 17.11.2012 at 18:52

With this masterpiece Tool became one of the greatest Alternative/Progressive Metal Bands on the Planet!

Tool has no best, they just make awesome albums and this is not exception!! I have a copy of this on cassette and i really dig the unique sound it has when played on that format, I know one day that I will get it on CD but it just sounds awesome on tape! Anyways about the music there is no use trying to explain it, Tool can't be explained.

Just listened to it for the first time ever (had my copy collecting dust for quite a while now). I love it.

Yep, it's a great album. This album took me a long time to fully appreciate, though; I used to think Lateralus and 10,000 Days were slightly better, but as I've grown older, I tend to think this one is tied with Lateralus for Tool's best album. Good stuff.

I remember when this came out, I was just a boy but I remember sitting with the older kids and hearing them talking about how impossible it was for Tool to top Undertow. I was way more into classic NWOBHM at the time so I only caught up on Lateralus, during the teenage days. I still hold Aenima and 10 000 days as the two best Tool records but again, its Tool so everything is great.

Rating it song by song, the album is hard to rate. Half the songs are epic 10/10 rockers, but the other half the songs are less listenable on their own, either because they are jokes, weird instrumentals, or they are just long and meander too much. It wouldn't be fair to gives these songs a lower rating, but it wouldn't be right to just ignore them either. Thankfully, when the album is listened to as a whole all the problems with listening to individual tracks goes away. These instrumentals don't detract from the album, they beautifully fill the spaces, and the long songs are better listened to as a track in the album as whole, which is rather long, but everything is needed. Just a fantastic album.

Trying this again. I'm wondering if I'd like this more if the production was better. All I'm getting is harsh highs and overly bassy lows; I really hate it: it hurts both my brain and my stomach. Musically it just seems like decent alternative metal with a lot of refrained quasi-sung vocals and meandering musical breaks. Doesn't feel like it ever comes together in a significant way though.

Oh yeah, the opiate ep is quite good, but I find the full lengths all to be better. I imagine that its a bit too proggy for you (?), as you dont seem to be much into the genre from what I've seen.

I like prog in some forms. They may have prog tendencies but to me they just sound like boring alternative metal

Thats a shame then. Maybe you should try out Rishloo? They're basically like Tool, just a bit more grunge influenced I think. Generally a bit more modern sounding from what I recall. Could be more to your taste.

Thats a shame then. Maybe you should try out Rishloo? They're basically like Tool, just a bit more grunge influenced I think. Generally a bit more modern sounding from what I recall. Could be more to your taste.

I think I've tried them actually. Can't remember if I liked them though, possibly did. I do tend to like Tool-esque bands more than Tool. Really like Karnivool, though I guess they only sound a little like Tool.